Darren Sharper returns to L.A. court on rape case

AP
7:30 a.m. EDT March 15, 2014

(Photo: The Associated Press)

LOS
ANGELES (AP) — Former NFL All-Pro safety Darren Sharper returns to
court Thursday for a hearing that will determine whether he's released
on bail amid new charges that he drugged and sexually assaulted two
women last year in Arizona.

The athlete has been in a Los Angeles
jail since Feb. 27, when he turned himself in on an arrest warrant
issued by Louisiana authorities on similar charges. Los Angeles Superior
Court Judge Renee Korn said last week that she could not hold Sharper
indefinitely unless he was charged in New Orleans, which has not yet
happened.

The indictment in Tucson, Ariz., will give Los Angeles
prosecutors another opportunity to argue that Sharper should remain in
custody, despite being freed on $1 million after pleading not guilty to
charges he drugged and raped two women in Los Angeles County. District
Attorney spokeswoman Jane Robison declined comment on how prosecutors
would treat the new charge in court Thursday, but prosecutors have said
they want their case handled before any others.

In
addition to the accusations in Arizona, California and Louisiana,
Sharper remains under investigation that he drugged and raped women in
Nevada and Florida. His attorneys have said they expect the former
player to be exonerated in the Los Angeles case.

In
a bail motion filed last month, an investigator described a pattern in
which the former football star met women at clubs or parties and lured
them to a hotel room, where they were allegedly drugged and raped.

The
New Orleans warrant says police learned from witnesses that Sharper and
an associate had acknowledged having nonconsensual sex with two women.
Sharper's attorneys say he never made such statements.

The warrant does not elaborate on how the information was obtained or disclose the names of the witnesses.

Sharper
was selected All-Pro six times and chosen for the Pro Bowl five times.
He played in two Super Bowls, one with the Green Bay Packers as a rookie
and was part of a successful championship run while with the New
Orleans Saints.

He retired after the 2010 season and was working as an analyst for the NFL Network before being fired recently.

In Arizona, the Tempe Police Department said a grand jury in metro
Phoenix had indicted Sharper after sexual assaults committed in Tempe in
November.

Police didn't release any other details of the charges. The
indictment has not yet been publicly released. A call to the county
prosecutor's office, which runs grand jury investigations, wasn't
immediately returned.

Police reports released earlier said two women believed they were
sexually assaulted by Sharper at a Tempe apartment on Nov. 21. One of
the women told police she suspected she had been drugged before she was
attacked.

It's not known whether Sharper has a lawyer in Arizona.

Prosecutors in New Orleans said Wednesday there will not be an
indictment of Sharper there by Thursday, a deadline set by a California
judge who said she would have to release Sharper if charges weren't
filed by then in Louisiana.

Darren Sharper's lawyer just filed legal docs blasting holes in the multiple criminal cases in which the former NFL star is accused of drugging and raping women. In the legal docs -- obtained by TMZ -- attorney Blair Berk lays out some pretty interesting weaknesses in the cases:

1. Berk says in the legal docs the Miami Beach P.D. has declined to file ANY criminal charges against Sharper and the investigation is closed. Short story, the evidence just wasn't there.

2. Berk says in the L.A. case ... the rape kits showed the 2 female accusers had sperm and DNA from men other than Sharper on their clothing. Berk alleges the D.A. refuses to ante up the names or any other info about the mystery men.

3. Berk claims in the Arizona case the lead detective perjured himself by claiming Sharper's semen was found on the leggings of one of the accusers. The detective testified as if he was reading from a forensic report, but Berk says it was all a lie and he later fessed up to the lie.

4. According to Berk, one of Sharper's Las Vegas accusers -- we'll call her Sarah -- had rough sex with another guy within 24 hours of her encounter with Sharper -- this according to the guy. Berk says he admitted to cops he left visible injuries on Sharper's accuser.

What's more ... there are 2 Vegas accusers -- Sarah and Jane. Berk says neither woman complained about an alleged rape the day after. In fact, Jane never even hinted she had sex with Sharper. And get this. The guy who had sex with Sarah texted Jane the day after saying, "I'll have some handsome white boys for [Sarah] when she comes back on her next vacation." To that Jane replied, "[Sarah] went a little darker last night." Berk says it sounded NOTHING like a rape.

5. One of the key prosecution witnesses in the New Orleans case is under criminal investigation for allegedly drugging a woman at a bar and Berk says there's even video of him slipping something into her drink. The guy is critical to the prosecution's case, claiming to have been at the bar with Sharper's accuser at the very time Sharper allegedly spiked her drink.

Berk and Sharper will be in court Friday, asking a judge to order prosecutors to fork over all of the evidence that tends to show Sharper is innocent.

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